Wendell Cox is principal of Demographia, a St. Louis area based public policy firm specializing in demographics, urban policy and transportation. He has completed projects in North America, Europe and Asia and has spoken around the world. He recently returned from Paris, where he serves annually as a visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers (CNAM), France's largest university.Mr. Cox was commissioned by the congressional Millennial Housing Commission to prepare a policy report Smart Growth and Housing Affordability.
He was appointed to three terms on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC) by former Mayor Tom Bradley. The Commission oversaw transit and highway policy in the nation's largest county. Mr. Cox was the only non-elected official, serving with 10 elected officials, including the Mayor and the County Supervisors. During that assignment, he also served as chair of two national committees of what is now called the American Public Transportation Association.
Speaker Newt Gingrich appointed Mr. Cox to complete the unexpired term of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman on the Amtrak Reform Council, where he played a major part in fashioning a congressionally mandated reform program. He also served three years as the Director of Public Policy of the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Mr. Cox lectures widely, writes numerous commentary articles and is frequently interviewed by international, national and local media. His firm sponsors three websites, "demographia.com," on urban policy, "publicpurpose.com," on transportation policy and "rentalcartours.net," which contains his travelogues on more than 100 world urban areas including all with more than 10 million population.